Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives

Miracles

How the Miraculous Medal Changed My Life

One of the most memorable experiences that I ever had was with the Miraculous
Medal! It changed my life.

In the fall of 1948, the year after my ordination, I was in what we call the
Tertianship. This is a third year of Novitiate before taking final vows.

In October of that year, a Vincentian priest came to speak to us young Jesuit
priests. He encouraged us to obtain faculties, as they are called, to enroll
people in the Confraternity of the Miraculous Medal. Among other things, he
said, "Fathers, the Miraculous Medal works. Miracles have been performed
by Our Lady through the Miraculous Medal."

I was not impressed by what the Vincentian priest was telling. I was not the
medal-wearing kind of person and I certainly did not have a Miraculous Medal.
But I thought to myself, "It does not cost anything." So I put my
name down to get a four page leaflet from the Vincentians, with the then-Latin
formula for blessing Miraculous Medals and enrolling people in the Confraternity
of the Miraculous Medal. About two weeks later, I got the leaflet for blessing
and enrollment, put it into my office book and forgot about it.

In February of the next year, I was sent to assist the chaplain of St. Alexis
Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. I was to be there helping the regular chaplain
for two weeks.

Each morning I received a list of all the patients admitted into the hospital
that day. There were so many Catholics admitted that I could not visit them
all as soon as they came.

Among the patients admitted was a boy about nine years old. He had been sled-riding
down hill, lost control of the sled and ran into a tree head-on. He fractured
his skull and X-rays showed he had suffered severe brain damage.

When I finally got to visit his room at the hospital, he had been in a coma
for ten days, no speech, no voluntary movements of the body. His condition was
such that the only question was whether he would live. There was no question
of recovering from what was diagnosed as permanent and inoperble brain damage.

After blessing the boy and consoling his parents, I was about to leave his
hospital room. But then a thought came to me. "That Vincentian priest.
He said, 'The Miraculous Medal works.' Now this will be a test of its alleged
miraculous powers!"

I didn't have a Miraculous Medal of my own. And everyone I asked at the hospital
also did not have one. But I persisted, and finally one of the nursing sisters
on night duty found a Miraculous Medal.

What I found out was that you don't just bless the medal, you have to put it
around a person's neck on a chain or ribbon. So the sister-nurse found a blue
ribbon for the medal, which made me feel silly. What was I doing with medals
and blue ribbons.

However, I blessed the medal and had the father hold the leaflet for investing
a person in the Confraternity of the Miraculous Medal. I proceeded to recite
the words of investiture. No sooner did I finish the prayer of enrolling the
boy in the Confraternity than he opened his eyes for the first time in two weeks.
He saw his mother and said, "Ma, I want some ice cream." He had been
given only intravenous feeding.

This Experience Changed My Life

Then he proceeded to talk to his father and mother. After a few minutes of
stunned silence, a doctor was called. The doctor examined the boy and told the
parents they could give him something to eat.

The next day began a series of tests on the boy's condition. X-rays showed
the brain damage was gone.

Then still more tests. After three days, when all examinations showed there
was complete restoration to health, the boy was released from the hospital.

This experience so changed my life that I have not been the same since. My
faith in God, faith in His power to work miracles, was strengthened beyond description.

Since then, of course, I have been promoting devotion to Our Lady and the use
of the Miraculous Medal. The wonders she performs, provided we believe, are
extraordinary.

In teaching theology over the years, I have many semesters taught the theology
of miracles. And I have an unpublished book manuscript on "The History
and Theology of Miracles." My hope is to publish the manuscript in the
near future.